Joe found himself spending part of his day acting as a moving service, and never predicted he would wind up injured as a result.
Rachel had made a copy of her house keys for Agnes, and because Agnes had left everything of hers behind in Kelowna, and because Rachel had no real furniture herself besides her bed, it fell to Joe and Lauren to provide out of their own cast offs. They were lending her the air mattress Rachel and Al had once used for a bed, and some old chairs they had in storage. The place was supposed to be just for Agnes to stay from time to time, and she assured them she needed no creature comforts like a TV. Still, with all the added items like lamps and other necessities, it was all more than they could move in Lauren's Nissan Versa, which was the only vehicle they had at the moment, so Rachel booked a Modo van in which to move everything.
They'd decided all this last night, apparently, after Rachel and Lauren had run into Agnes while they were visiting Al, who was now starting to walk again. The two women had taken Agnes in hand and given her a viewing of the house, with the result of finally getting an answer from her; Joe knew very well how persuasive they could be when they worked together. They'd certainly done a number on him when asking him to help move on what was normally a work day for him, and when Johnny grumbled about the imposition of having to take on more of the load for the day, all Lauren had to do was take the phone, and he was putty in her hands.
To Rachel's credit, since she booked the van, she also used part of her day to help him move. Lauren wouldn't have been any help in her condition, so she went into work to catch up on administrative duties and help her other partner, Sanderson, put out fires. Apparently the security guards working at Vancouver Public Library were talking about organizing, and Lauren had known about it longer than the other two partners but hadn't gotten around to telling them before she got injured, so now she needed to smooth things over with them and discuss their next steps.
Joe didn't envy Lauren her situation. His dad worked in the mill as a member of the IWA, and though it had provided the family with a good standard of living, the system eventually failed him when he was laid off from one mill and had to start all the way at the bottom of another because he lacked seniority in the new bargaining unit. Starting all over again in the green chain at his age ultimately caused the injury that put him on disability leave. Not that Dad ever held the union to blame; it was the employer's working conditions that had injured him, after all, as was the employer's decision to close the mill and take his job away. When Joe and Johnny began their construction firm, the people they took on weren't unionized and hadn't expressed any desire to be so, probably because the prevailing rate had already been established by previous generations of unionized trades workers. Regardless, they'd avoided the headache of dealing with a third party in negotiating rates and working conditions, and as long as they maintained their reputation as a safe, fair and well-paying employer, hopefully they'd continue to do so. If employees at Justiciar decided to organize, it would shake up the entire organization and maybe affect its viability and Lauren's share of the profit, and thus their family's finances.
It might even affect Rachel's employment, and while they were moving furniture into the new house, he asked her, "Are you worried about the security guards organizing at the library?"
Rachel shrugged and said, "Not much I can do about it, so why worry?"
He placed an old armchair down in the living room while Rachel put away some old utensils in the kitchen. An idea occurred to him. "Look, if worse comes to worst and a shake-up happens at Justiciar, for any reason at all, I want you to know we'd take you back at DiTomaso Construction in a heartbeat; you know our accounting is done on contract, and I always preferred your work over theirs."
She closed a drawer and looked at him. "Thank you, Joe. That's sweet of you. I'd like to hope my years working at Justiciar have allowed me to get out from under the shadow of Martin Heath's embezzling frame-up enough that I could find another job, but it's nice to know I have something to fall back on."
"No question. You're my favourite person, aside from Lauren."
She blinked at him for a few seconds before saying, "What about Joanie?"
Yes. What about Joanie? He sighed in resignation and said, "She never even texted me back after I sent her the information Lauren had about the car. I think I've damaged our relationship irrevocably with that slip-up."
She smirked and said, "Because of me, you mean."
He closed his eyes and massaged them with his fingers through the lids. He didn't want to have this conversation, but in hindsight it was probably unavoidable.
"Lauren must trust you and me quite a lot to leave us alone together," she said as if reading his mind. "Or, maybe she recognizes that she has a lot of scale balancing to do after what she did with Al."
He chuckled and said, "Maybe a little of both."
"Unlike Lauren, I'm not looking to jump the bones of my best friend's spouse any time I get the chance."
"Darn," he said.
"You're terrible!" she bellowed, but she was smiling. "Were you really hoping we'd take this opportunity to steal some time together?"
He shrugged sheepishly and said, "Maybe not hoping... just... open to the possibility if it was offered."
She crossed her arms and said, "Meaning I'd have to make the first move."
"I'd never want to make you uncomfortable, and I think I'd be doing that if I tried to initiate anything. Aside from those two times, we've never done anything out of the bounds of our friendship."
"And both times were in rather weird and extreme circumstances."
"Yeah, but you have to admit they were both pretty good."
"Ha," she barked. She was blushing, though, and Joe realized this situation was getting dangerous.
Then she said something that surprised him. "Joanie visited Al on Monday and told him what we'd done."
He felt the blood drain from his face. "Oh." It was all he felt capable of saying.
She concentrated on unpacking more as she said, "Al told me this while we were walking him around his room. Do you want to know what else he said?"
"What?"
"That if I wanted to be with you again, he wouldn't stand in my way."
He cleared his throat as he felt himself swelling. "I see," he said.
"It just about broke my heart," she said. "I know he's only saying that to make up for what he's done."
"I guess he must be confident in your devotion to him if he'd allow you to be with me again."
"I guess. I mean, I was just as confident in his, and he's still with me." She looked up and said, "What's happening to us? Are we all just going to sleep around with no consequences?"
"I don't know. If you'd asked me that a few months ago I would have said no. You remember how angry I was when you confessed what you and Lauren got up to with Al."
"I do. Then what happened a few weeks ago happened."
"And suddenly no one has any moral high ground anymore. Except maybe Sunny, since he's about the only one of us who hasn't cheated on his spouse. Even Tej can't say that, although it doesn't seem as bad because it was with you and Lauren."
"Poor Sunny," Rachel said. "So deprived."
"He confessed to me at the hockey game last week that he has crushes on both of you. That was a bit of a surprise, considering he has Tej."
She hooted in surprise and said, "Seriously? Oh, boy, when I visited him in hospital, I saw his hair was down, and when I was touching it, because it's crazy silky smooth and long, and picturing myself shampooing it in the shower, he said something like, 'it's a good thing I like you.' Now I wonder if he meant more than as a friend."
"He probably did."
"Shit. We should be careful. Even Lauren confessed she found him attractive once. How would you feel about sharing her with him?"
He groaned and put his hand over his face. "Not again. It'd have to be a fair exchange."
"You mean you and Tej. She's a hot one; I speak from experience."
"Okay, you know what? I think we'd better stop talking about this before I have an accident in my pants."
She chuckled and shook her head. "You're a bad boy, Joe DiTomaso. I guess the whole Catholic guilt thing doesn't affect you anymore?"
"Actually, it still does. I guess it just doesn't stop me."
They finished bringing in the rest of what they'd packed in the van over the next hour. Joe noticed there were items he didn't remember packing. "You brought towels?" he asked as Rachel placed them in the ensuite.
"Lauren said these were older and didn't mind letting them go. What did you think Agnes was going to use when she was here?"
"I don't know, actually. I guess I assumed she'd bring her own."
"I don't think she had anything like this when she left. We have to think like we're stocking a hotel room. There are old sheets for the mattress. Lauren even threw in some bottles of shampoo and body wash she must have stolen from hotels over the years."
"That's thoughtful of her. You and Lauren take care of everybody, that's what I notice about you all the time."
She shrugged. "We're women, we just think about everyday comforts."
She placed the small bottles in the large glass shower stall, then stood back and had a look around, her mouth moving soundlessly as she ticked off on her fingers everything she'd brought in. After a minute, she asked, "Have we brought everything in?"
"We have. I closed and locked the van after the last run."
"Oh. Perfect."
She stayed looking at the shower stall.
"Rachel?" he asked.
"You know Lauren's just going to do it again, right?" she said, apropos of nothing.
"Huh?"
She turned to him and said, "As soon as Al's back on his feet, so to speak. She'll be with him again. It will only be a matter of time. Either I'll invite her in, or she'll just find another way to be alone with him, like we are now."
He swallowed hard. "Rachel, what are you--"
"She kissed him on the mouth last night, right in front of me, and I took the curse off it by kissing her on the mouth, giving him a good show. Of course Agnes chose that time to walk in on us, and now she must be wondering what kind of woman Al married, and how she can get him to divorce me and go back to her."
"Oh, come on, I'm sure that's not what she's thinking."
"You're kidding, right? You've never been in the room when they're together, because you've never visited him, which I understand, don't worry. I see the way she looks at him, like he's the last branch she can grab before the waterfall takes her over, and he's staring up at her like she's just walked out of his dreams, which is kind of true, in a way, because he'd been remembering their life together just before he woke up from his coma."
"Okay, but even if that's true, he'd never leave you for her. You have two kids now, and regardless of how I feel about what he and Lauren have done, neither of them have asked us for a divorce either. I think, whatever indiscretions we've committed, we all know what the stakes are."
She shook her head, and to Joe's surprise tears came to her eyes. "Fuck," she muttered, wiping them furiously. "These last few weeks have just done a number on me."
"Of course they have. You didn't know if Al would make it."
"And then Lauren's baby."
He felt his teeth grinding together. "Let's not talk about that."
"And now in walks this other woman from his past. I just want to shout at the world to stop, sometimes, just let me get off so I can stop feeling dizzy and get my bearings back."
He felt his heart breaking for her. He put a hand on her arm. "I get it. I'm sorry, if that makes a difference. You could have just let me do this today, you know; the fact that you're doing all this for her when you know what he means to her makes you a saint. I could have done this myself and let you have a break."
She sniffed and wiped her eyes. "No. It's okay. I booked the van, I needed to drive it, or at least be with it. It's okay. This was kind of nice, actually, a break from all of that; sometimes mindless work can do that, you know? Just zone you out and let you forget for a while."
"Yeah, I guess."
Suddenly she threw her arms around him. "Thanks, Joe. You understand me."
He squeezed her back hard and said, "You and I have been through a lot together, especially since that time in Aldergrove. That's something we'll never have with our spouses, and I consider myself privileged to have gone through it with you."
She looked up at him with those dazzling green eyes, now shining with unshed tears, and said, "Yeah? Even the broken arm and ribs?"
"Okay, yeah, that was no picnic, but again, you were my angel, keeping me up and walking that whole time. You still are, you know."
Her eyes were boring into him, challenging him, and he knew this could go one of two ways, both of them life-altering: either she could tell him to stop being an ass and concentrate on repairing his marriage, and forever after he wouldn't be able to look her in the eye, or she could respond to him the way he hoped she would, and then he'd have to stop hating Al and just admit they were all sharing each other now.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"Yeah."
She kissed him, then, and it occurred to him, as the latter option unfolded and before lust consumed him, that this was the first time they'd ever kissed standing up. She only needed to stand on tiptoe to do it, and she was consuming him hungrily.
Then her fingers were unbuttoning his shirt, and she said, "I don't suppose you have a condom, do you? I wouldn't even care at this moment if you don't, since I'm still on the pill; I just need to feel you inside me."
"Fuck," he breathed, as he did his best to strip her without ripping her clothes off. "I think I have one in my wallet."
"Okay."
"Rachel," he said, taking her face in his hands. "Don't get me wrong, I want you too. Just... I want to be sure you're not going to regret this later."
She sighed in frustration as she unbuttoned his pants. "Joe, regret is all I know. I regret ever inviting Al in on my relationship with Lauren. I regret ever being nice to Agnes. I want something I can regret actively instead of passively, if you know what I mean."
He thought about that for a moment as she grabbed his erection. "Not sure if I do, but at this point I don't really care."
"Good. Now, where? I don't know if that air mattress is going to be able to contain what we do."
He didn't think so either; every time he and Lauren had used it while camping, it had always threatened to explode under his weight just by lying on it. It definitely would if he pounded Rachel on it.
He looked to the shower stall, its door open, beckoning them. "I don't know about you, but I worked hard today, got a little sweaty. I could use a shower."
She nodded. "Fuck, yeah. I want you to hold me up while you fuck me."
His heart beat in his throat, and he felt lightheaded with lust as he said, "Don't take this the wrong way, Rachel, but that's the second time I've gotten that request this week."
She pulled him toward the shower. "Shut up and don't mention her name."
They barely took the time to get wet and wash each other with the little bottles of hotel shampoo and body wash before they were pawing each other, Rachel hanging off him, making like she was trying to eat his face, chewing on his shoulders and chest. She felt very, very good in his arms, all wet and soapy, a woman he could get a hold of, not as tall and muscular as Joanie, but pleasing in a soft, full-bodied way; he could feel all of her against him at once with her leg wrapped around his waist, and he didn't know how long he could last with her. Her breasts were fabulous, bigger than Lauren's and Joanie's (it amazed him that he could now say he had three women he could compare,) soft and firm at the same time, and he took his time fondling and sucking on them while she moaned and bucked against him, clamping his other hand between her legs while he fingered her. After he made her come with a shudder, she knelt down to take him in her mouth. At times she gagged, and she paused and looked up at him. "How does Lauren deal with this all the time?"
"I thought we weren't supposed to mention her name."
"I can, you can't. She's my lover too, remember?"
"Don't do that too much longer, or I might not have anything for the main event."
She winked at him and gave him a little more attention, then said, "Get that condom on."
Because she was bigger than Lauren, holding her up was more of a challenge, but he gave it everything he could. "Holy shit!" she cried, gripping his waist tightly with her legs as he bucked her up and down on him. "I could never do this with Al, we're too similar in height. God, this feels so good! I feel like you're going to burst out of my mouth!"
When she said that, he was helpless, and he exploded inside her. "Keep going!" she commanded. "Don't stop yet! As long as you're still hard!"
How could he say no? He kept it up as long as he still felt her tightness around him. She ground against him herself and, just as she cried out in orgasm...
Something popped in his back.
The hollow groan he emitted didn't grab Rachel's attention right away, she was still swimming in post-coital dopamine and oxytocin. When he suddenly dropped to his knees, though, she startled and climbed off him. "Joe?" she asked. "Joe? Are you okay?"
"Threw out my back," he grunted.
"Oh, shit." She turned off the water and held out her hand. "Can I help you up?"
"I might pull you down with me."
"Come on. You can't stay down there forever."
"This is bad, Rachel. How am I going to explain this away?"
"Easy. You hurt it while you were moving. Hell, maybe you did, but it didn't come on until we had sex." She sighed. "In retrospect, I regret asking you to hold me up."
"I don't. That was fantastic."
She chuckled. "It was. Damn, this was just supposed to be a last go before Al came home, but I won't be able to get that out of my head for a very long time."
"Then this was worth it."
"Come on, you have to get up before you stiffen up and can't move at all."
In a reenactment of their time in Aldergrove, she helped him to his feet with a rocking motion, using the door handle of the shower stall for extra support. Being naked and wet added a frisson of excitement to the effort, but there was no way he could repeat his performance now even if he wanted to. The pain in his lower back obliterated everything else, and he was embarrassed to emit a whimper every now and then as they stepped out of the stall and Rachel helped towel him down.
"Shit, we'll have to wash and dry these before Agnes moves in," she said. She peeled off his condom and flushed it down the toilet. "I know we're not supposed to flush these, but I don't know what Agnes would say if she found it in the trash."
"Shit, you're right. This is Al's and your place, and since Al's still in hospital..."
"That's just the ammunition she'd need to tarnish me in his eyes." She groaned and put her face in her hands. "We never even got to break in this place first, Al and me."
"I feel kind of honoured that you chose me for that."
"And now comes the regret."
"Hey." He pulled her to him and pressed her naked, clean and now dry body against him. "Do you think Al regrets when he's with Lauren? I know for certain Lauren doesn't."
"Because I'm a better person than she is."
He burst out laughing even though it hurt, the muscles in his lower back protesting the full body convulsion. "And modest, too."
She started laughing, too, and the hum of it felt good with her still in his arms.
She helped him get dressed. It was embarrassing, how limited his range of movement had become, when minutes earlier he was using his body to satisfy her. Maybe he'd been a little overconfident in his strength and size, or maybe he was just getting older, but he'd paid for this indiscretion even if Lauren never found out about it. Still, he would have done the same thing if he had the chance to do it over again. Having Rachel in his arms, in the air, completely at his mercy, had been the most thrilling thing he'd ever experienced, and like Rachel said, he wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it for a long time.
After she dressed, mopped up the bathroom floor and put all the towels they'd used in the washing machine, she asked, "Do you need to go to work, or would you like to rest up at home? You probably shouldn't stay here, but I can come back and finish up before I bring the van back. The parking space is right at the Brentwood Skytrain station, to I can take the Skytrain to work from there."
He winced in pain as he began walking to the front door. "I should probably meet up with Johnny if you can drive me to the site we're on. He can drive me home after. I can tell him about the move screwing up my back, and he'll laugh at me for a few minutes, but he won't be suspicious otherwise. If I went home now, and Lauren knows I've been home all day, she might wonder what happened."
"Will you be able to do any work, though? I can tell you're in pain."
"I'll just supervise today. No heavy lifting for me."
"Not after me," she said, bopping him playfully on the arm.
He smirked and said, "I think you're proud of yourself for making me work so hard."
She shrugged. "Actually, yeah."
She drove him to meet Johnny before returning to dry the towels and bring the van back, and Johnny laughed at him just as he thought he would, but didn't ask any follow up questions and let him take it easy in the office. When Johnny drove him home at the end of the day, he managed to get home before Lauren, and when Lauren carpooled home with Rachel, they seemed as close as ever, so Lauren must not have become suspicious of Rachel's wet hair when she finally got into work (Rachel had her hair in a ponytail, so Lauren might not have noticed.) When Lauren noticed Joe laid up, especially with Naomi doting on him, she took pity on him and nursed him a little that night, since she was better able to get around even with the boot and the walking stick. He'd earned the reward of taking it easy for the rest of the night, she said, since he'd done them all a favour by moving everything in for them. Her concern about him made him feel guilty, since she didn't know how he'd really thrown out his back.
But not much.
Thanks for reading this far! For any readers who thought Al and Lauren got away with too much for their liking, here is the comeback. Not that any of them are justified in what they do, but then again I never claimed they were saints. As for how they can all remain friends after this... well, that's why this is fiction. If you liked what you read so far, hit "Vote" to send this title up the ranks. Leave a comment and let me know what you think!
To see what Al's doing while Joe and Rachel were giving into temptation, and the surprise visitor to his room, click on "Continue Reading."